


I Broke Free On a Saturday Morning

by capripian



Series: This Year (Sasha Week 2021) [2]
Category: Rusty Quill Gaming (Podcast)
Genre: Death mentioned but like. in a Hades way, Gen, Other LOLOMG are mentioned but not present, Supergiant Hades AU, light paris spoilers, the real victim: sasha's split lip
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-18
Updated: 2021-01-18
Packaged: 2021-03-16 09:59:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28829283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/capripian/pseuds/capripian
Summary: Day 2: AUSasha Racket is the niece of the Lord of the Underworld. She's only got one goal: get out of her uncle's domain. It's a difficult journey, fighting countless enemies on her way to the outside world.At least she has her friends to help her escape, aiding however they can.
Relationships: Azu & Sasha Racket
Series: This Year (Sasha Week 2021) [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2111829
Comments: 4
Kudos: 19
Collections: Sasha Week 2021





	I Broke Free On a Saturday Morning

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for the Sasha Week prompt AU. As can be surmised from the tags, it's an AU of Supergiant's Hades. In this case, Sasha is analogous to Zagreus, Barrett to Hades, and the LOLOMG to the Olympians. I had a lot of fun with this one!
> 
> Source for the title of this fic and the series is This Year by the Mountain Goats (incidentally, also a Zagreus song). 
> 
> The graphic depictions of violence warning is mostly to be safe. There's also some discussion of major character death, but in the Hades way where it's a temporary setback. 
> 
> Also, as is only reasonable, this is partially inspired by tumblr user @cerulean-devil's series of RQG characters in the Hades style. They're awesome, go check them out, case closed. Hades-style Sasha is a boon of her very own.

She wipes a bit of blood from her split lip and sheathes her daggers, noting with pride that the boon of fire Hamid enchanted them with worked quite well. She’ll have to thank him for it later with some nectar, if she runs into him again this time.

It’s her… eleventh try, Sasha thinks. It’s tough to keep track after a while. It’s the same story every time, after all. She tries to run away from the House, she gets killed by something along the way, and she returns with all her scars opening up as she tries to avoid coughing up blood.

She knows it’ll happen this time too. Barrett’s sneer as he mocks her attempts to escape is crystal-clear in her head. So is Eldarion’s cold disappointment, and Brock’s sympathy.

This is the farthest she’s gotten, though. She’s not giving up. The doorway above, in the endless underground chambers, displays a pink, pearly heart. She smiles, before grimacing slightly. Right. Lip. Forgot. It’d be a fight, certainly, but at least she has a good conversation to anticipate.

The door slides open with a stony thud, opening into a hot, sandy chamber with dozens of ambiguous cultists spread out within it. _ “Lads and blokes,” _ she mutters to herself. 

They’re really annoying in numbers, even if you can deal with a few easily. Plus, if they have a leader here it’ll stop her in her tracks. That’s how she died last time, after all. Looking around, she doesn’t see one, so she thinks she’s safe. 

A lad stabs her in the shoulder, swiftly putting an end to that assumption. She twirls around, and dashes past him fast enough that even through the cloak she can tell he’s dizzy. That might just be because of the golden falcon feathers lining her footsteps, though. Bertie could leave anyone dizzy, and so can his boons.

She takes out two blokes at once with a spinning blade attack, grinning as she recognizes Zolf’s positive energy harming them and healing her in one fell swoop.Three more are coming closer, however, so she dashes past them and throws a bomb at the area where she just was. It explodes, and Grizzop’s silvery arrows rain down to take out the whole lot.

She’s too busy looking at the explosion, in giddy awe, to notice more blokes coming from behind. It takes one of them slashing her arm to do it, and as she turns around in surprise she buries her daggers in a lad’s neck. His cloak catches aflame, multicolored dragonfire spreading over him as he’s reduced to ash along with his partner, and she turns. Suddenly, she’s face to face with a squizzard. 

Well. Fuck. She certainly didn’t expect that. She dashes past it to strike from behind and sees it get caught up in more loud falcons, stunned temporarily. She’s not going to thank Bertie for that, or for anything ever, but he’s certainly useful sometimes. 

She buries her dagger in its maybe-shoulder and it loses a squirming tentacle to the flame. She pulls it out with a splash of fluid, and it grasps her while she’s close to it with an amorphous limb. She tries to pull her hand away, but before she can it leaves a deep purple mark on her forearm, which spreads and rots a section of her flesh.

Sasha just grits her teeth. She’s had worse, and she is not dying to another one of Barrett’s  _ fucking squizzards.  _ She darts away, throwing a bomb at it and growing satisfied when she sees the arrows studded through its cloak. 

Spinning her dagger in a wide arc, she feels her wound start to close as she watches the squizzard sink to the ground. She buries a final dagger in its head, watching it disintegrate into ash with Hamid’s fire surrounding it. Squizzard: handled. From there, it’s not too much trouble to get rid of the remaining lads and blokes.

When the chamber clears, she sees a rose gold oyster shell, glowing with faint pink light. She smiles. “Azu.”

The shell opens easily, as it always does, and the pink pearl she holds in her hands brings with it a comforting warmth. “In the name of the LOLOMG,” she says, “I accept this message.”

Azu brings with her the laughter of friends joined in connection and the peace of a nice drink after a long day’s work. She sees Sasha and smiles. “Sasha! It’s so good to see you again. How did it go this time?”

Sasha shrugs, wiping some blood and detritus out of her hair. It’s fine when it’s just her, but Azu’s here and fancy and her armor’s polished and it’s hard not to feel like you’re meant to be more presentable. 

“Went alright. Mr. Ceiling gave me some trouble, but I got past it well enough.”

Azu considers a moment before asking what she wants to. “It’s not strange to you, that your cousin is one of the people trying to keep you here?”

“I mean, s’not like he had much choice in the matter. He’s a denizen down here, he’s got a job.” She drops to a mutter, slightly more bitter.  _ “Barrett probably assigned him there on purpose, just to mess with me.” _

“What was that?”

“Nothing, ‘s fine.”

Azu doesn’t seem sure about that, but she obliges. “Alright then. Would you like some help along your journey? You look quite injured.”

Sasha cracks a grin. “You shoulda seen the other guys.” She immediately uncracks her grin. Gods, that split lip is somehow more annoying than all the times she’s literally died. 

Azu seems amused. “If you want, I can heal you.”

“That’d be good, yeah.”

Azu does so, placing a hand on the shell necklace she wears and another on Sasha’s shoulder. A bright pink glow fills the room, and Sasha sees the cuts on her shoulder and arm close up. Her decaying forearm takes more effort from Azu, whose forehead wrinkles in concentration, but it too fades.

Nothing for the split lip. Go figure.

When Azu pulls her hand away, Sasha nods in acknowledgement. Azu starts to disappear, but Sasha holds up a hand. “Wait.”

Azu turns her head and looks at Sasha, curious. “Oh? What is it, Sasha?”

“I…” This was a stupid idea. She should just keep going about her business without getting all sentimental, that’s not what she’s good at. “Nevermind.”

Azu smiles, and Sasha knows she understands anyway. 

She wants to say thank you. She wants to tell Azu- and Zolf, and Hamid, and Grizzop- that she never would have gotten out of Other London without their help. She never could have made it without their boons, of course, but also…

The first time she died, organs ripped out by Mr. Ceiling, she woke up in the dark of the House screaming. Barrett laughed at her as she shook the blood off her tunic, and she couldn’t look Brock in the eye without thinking of the haunting prison warden that he was part of. 

She wanted to give up. She almost caved, went back to working for Barrett. But she remembered something Zolf said, that first time she met him in the tunnels.

_ “You’re gonna get outta here, got it? Never give up hope.” _

If it hadn’t been for that, Sasha thinks she wouldn’t have been able to keep going.

She doesn’t thank Zolf out loud, doesn’t thank any of the LOLOMG for what they gave her. But as she moves on to the next chamber, and the next and the next, she understands. There is gratitude in perseverance. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed this, please leave comments or kudos.
> 
> You can follow me on Tumblr at @capripian and @capripian-arts, or talk to me on discord at fey dyke#2644.
> 
> If I've made any typos point 'em out in the comments and I'll fix them.
> 
> Additionally, here's my breakdown of the boons Sasha had in this fic:
> 
> Attack: Fires of Apophis, from Hamid (Attack deals additional damage and foe is burned, inflicting continuous damage)
> 
> Special: Channel Positive Energy, from Zolf (Special heals Sasha in addition to dealing increased damage to armored foes)
> 
> Cast: Volley of Arrows, from Grizzop (Cast is a bomb that explodes outward in all directions with seeking arrows)
> 
> Dash: Falcon's Flight, from Bertie (Dash deals small amounts of damage and leaves foes stunned temporarily)
> 
> Azu's boon was a one-off healing boon rather than a core ability boon like the others, but I'd imagine hers would be primarily support the way Hermes' usually are in the original game.


End file.
